The prosecution in the case of the lynched Major Maxwell Adam Mahama says it is ready to prosecute 32 out of the 58 accused persons arraigned so far.
The 26 others were discharged by the court but immediately rearrested by the police as investigations continue into their alleged involvement.
The Accra Central District Court, which is handling the committal procedure, ordered that one of the accused persons, who claimed to be 17 years, should be sent to the Senior Correctional Centre, also known as the Borstal Institute, until police investigations confirmed his age.
During yesterday’s sitting, the prosecutor, DSP George Amegah, prayed the court to allow the prosecution to consolidate three charge sheets to be presented to the court.
He also pleaded with the court, presided over by Mr Ebenezer Kwaku Ansah, to remand the accused in police custody to give more time to the police to continue with their investigations.
The case has been adjourned to July 6, 2017.
Outside courtroom drama
The accused arrived on the court premises about 8.45 a.m. under heavy police guard.
It took the police more than 45 minutes to send them to the courtroom, as the court worked to clear cases before it to make room for the accused persons.
In the absence of handcuffs on their wrists, they were made to hold one another’s apparel and walk into the courtroom under police guard.
Event outside the courtroom was not without drama. Scores of people who converged on the precincts of the court could not resist raining insults and curses on the accused persons.
Because the courtroom was too small, the 58 accused persons were brought in batches, and anytime they were moved to and from the courtroom, the angry voices of the spectators outside the courtroom went up.
“You will not live to see your next generation”; “Your next generation will not live”; “God will punish you”; “Heartless women”; “Kill them like they killed the soldier” were some of the invectives, insults and demands of the crowd.
In the crowd were relatives of the suspects who stood or sat quietly with heavy faces outside the courtroom.
Facts
The facts, as presented by DSP Amegah, were that Major Mahama was the Commander of a military detachment stationed at Diaso in the Upper Denkyira West District in the Central Region to check illegal mining activities.
At 8 a.m. on May 29, 2017, Major Mahama, wearing civilian clothes but with his sidearm, left his detachment base for a 20-kilometre jogging.
Inspector Apiosornu said at 9:25 a.m., the military officer got to the outskirts of Denkyira Obuasi, where a number of women were selling foodstuffs by the roadside.
He stopped to interact with the women and even bought some snails, which he left in their custody to be taken upon his return from jogging.
While he was taking out money from his pocket to pay for the snails, the woman from whom he had bought the snails and a few others saw Major Mahama’s sidearm tucked to his waist.
Soon after he left, one of the women telephoned the assembly member for Denkyira Obuasi to report what they had seen.
“Without verifying the information, the assembly member mobilised the accused persons and others, some now at large, to attack the military officer,’’ the prosecutor said.
He said the mob met Major Mahama near the Denkyira Obuasi cemetery and, without giving him the opportunity to explain and identify himself, “attacked him with implements such as clubs, cement blocks and machetes, killed him and burnt a portion of his body”.